Money Tips Network

In their classic Your Money or Your Life, Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin argue that the relationship between spending and happiness is non-linear.

More spending brings more fulfillment — up to a point. But spending too much can actually have a negative impact on your quality of life. The authors suggest that personal fulfillment — that is, contentment — can be graphed on a curve that looks like this:

In the book The Millionaire Next Door, the authors Thomas Stanley and William Danko surveyed more than a thousand households that had accumulated more than a million dollars in net worth, looking for traits among them that were decidedly different than the mainstream population. What did people who had accumulated wealth do that others do not, and vice versa?

The entire book discusses the results of that study, but very early in the book the authors efficiently boil down the differences in financial behavior between those who are able to accumulate wealth and those who do not down to seven key factors. These seven factors are the key things that people who are effective at building enough wealth to be financially independent do that are different than most people.

Travel should be fun and relaxing, but the planning part isn't always so. If you've ever planned a trip or two, then you know how stressful it can be...but you probably learned a few things about how to plan your next trip!

What are your best travel planning tips?

The following is a guest post from DollarSprout.

When it comes to building wealth, there are many technical steps and strategies you can follow. And if those technical strategies are what you are lacking, there is no shortage of expert information available.

One piece that is often forgotten, however, is the impact an optimistic money mindset can have on your financial success. It’s an important topic to discuss, as more and more research is showing just how beneficial a positive money mindset can be for building wealth.

What is a Money Mindset?

In general, your mindset is made up of your attitude and beliefs. Therefore, your money mindset is the attitude and beliefs with which you approach money.

Your money mindset is at the core of how you make financial decisions and whether or not you achieve your financial goals.

Jeremy writes in:

My group of friends has been kicking around an idea and I wanted to get your take on it. Let’s say you had to live out of a suitcase or a big duffel bag permanently. That’s all the possessions you could own. What would be in that bag and why?

I actually wrote about this a few years ago when I discussed a month-long period where I did this as a 30-day challenge. During that challenge, I aimed to live out of a backpack and a duffel bag. I gave a brief list of some of the items I carried in that bag, but I didn’t get into too much detail; instead, I moved quickly on to the things I learned from doing it, which I boiled down to six lessons:

When people talk about saving money, DIY is one of the first things that comes to mind.

• Learn how to fix things around the house!
• Change the oil in your Prius!
• Make your own cleaning supplies!

Do all of this (and more) and you could save hundreds of dollars a year.

And that’s great. I know lots of folks that enjoy growing a lush garden resulting in delicious produce (that can be canned or frozen) in due season. There are people in my life that find doing laundry calming, and others that will happily take on any domestic project that comes their way. Personally, I enjoy doing the dishes.

While I’m happy spending time on the things that I like, there are certain things that I hate doing — and that I will happily outsource to others.

What would you do if you had a million dollars?

This question seems to come up regularly as a conversation starter. I’ve found that the answers tend to fall into two groups.

In one group, you tend to have answers that involve radical life changes. That person would just move to another part of the world or go on a bunch of vacations or buy a ridiculously expensive home.

In another group, you have answers that involve financial security. That person would pay off debts, maybe buy a modest home or a reasonable car, and put the rest away for big future goals.

You might see a mix of the two, where the radical life change person does pay off credit card debt first or the financial security person does go on a great vacation, but most of their planning centers around their main objective. It’s either radical life changes or financial security, and it’s pretty clear which one is the focus.

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This week's topic: Keeping Graduation Season Frugal! Learn about saving on attire, travel, gifts, and more!

A few weeks ago, I found myself in a situation where I was really hungry but there weren’t many food options around. I decided to keep my costs as low as possible, so I went into the only restaurant I could find, a nice little diner. I want to be clear during this article that I am not picking on this diner. It was a nice place to eat, the service was good, the food was good, and I was happy with it.

At the diner, I ordered an extremely simple breakfast. I had a cup of coffee, some scrambled eggs, some fried potatoes, and two pieces of toast. The total bill was about $10 – really, not that bad – and then I left a $2 tip, so the cost was $12.